CBS News chairman defends Lara Logan in staff meeting

12/4/13 10:58 AM EST

CBS News chairman and '60 Minutes' EP Jeff Fager held a meeting with CBS News staff on Tuesday and took questions about the fate of Lara Logan and Max McClellan, the journalists currently on a leave of absence in the wake of the controversial '60 Minutes' report on Benghazi, POLITICO has learned.

In the meeting, held with 'CBS This Morning' staffers, Fager said he did not know how long Logan and her producer would be on leave, and made no indication that they would be asked to resign in the wake of the now-retracted report, according to sources familiar with the meeting. Those sources said Fager defended Logan as a valuable member of the '60 Minutes' team even as he acknolwedged the erroneous nature of the report.

"He did not throw her under the bus," one source said of Fager's remarks about Logan.

Sonya McNair, a spokesperson for CBS News, declined to comment.

Fager announced in late November that Logan and McClellan would be taking leave following the Oct. 27 report, in which security contractor Dylan Davies claimed to have been present and active at the Sept. 11 raid on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Reports later indicated that Davies had told both his contractor and the FBI that he was not present at the compound on the night of the attack. More than a week after the report aired, the network admitted the story was flawed, retracted it and apologized.

Since then, CBS News and '60 Minutes' have faced mounting pressure for greater accountability, especially in light of the 2004 Killian documents controversy (about former President George W. Bush's National Guard service, which eventually led to Dan Rather leaving the network.)

Fager's full announcement about Logan and McClellan's leave, as well as the findings from the network's internal journalistic review, can be read here.